…[what]really floored me was Obamaâ€™s taking credit for the increase in US oil and gas production over the last several years. Â It is certainly true that, against all predictions of peak oil, new technologies have helped drive a surge in US hydrocarbon production. Â Combined with a recession-driven drop in demand, Americaâ€™s oil imports as a percentage of its total use has dropped to 45.6%, the lowest level in over 15 years.

This surge in energy production is a fabulous reminder of how markets work. Â For years I have written that the peak oil folks were missing something fundamental by performing an overly static analysis. Â They looked at current â€œprovenâ€ reserves of oil and gas and projected forward how many years it would take for these to run out. Â But oil and gas reserve numbers only make sense in the context of a particular set of technologies and pricing levels. Â As hydrocarbons run short, rising prices tend to spur both innovation and new, more expensive exploration activity. Â Oil and gas companies are once again proving Julian Simonâ€™s addage that the only true scarcity is human brain power, and they should be given a lot of credit for the recent production boom.

The one person who deserves no credit for this boom is Barack Obama. Â in fact, this Administration has bent over backwards to make oil and gas production and exploration as difficult as possible.